Helping her speed up.

My daughter has had issues at school with speed tests, it’s nothing new for us, but I’m running out of ideas. Last year, they had I think 2-3 minutes to complete 25 addition of substation math facts. Obviously, the goal is to have them pretty much memorized, so they can do it fast. At the start of last year, she was only getting about 8-10 questions completed, by the end of the year, she would get 20-25 depending on the day. She knows the stuff, she’s actually quite good at math, she just can’t do it fast, her brain doesn’t work that way. In many ways it’s good, when she knows an answer, she truly understands the process. It’s frustrating because she can’t seem to put it down in paper fast enough. If I just ask her an addition problem, no paper, no suggestion of time constraints, she can rattle off the answer, but if you continuously drill her in that way, she slows way down.

We practiced all summer, not every single day, but most days. I tried giving her fewer questions, thinking maybe a whole sheet was too daunting. I would tell her to just do them, that I wasn’t timing. Sometimes I’d tell her if I was timing. We tried math apps. I just can’t get her to go faster. Yesterday, she brought home a speed test from Friday, she had answered 2 questions, that’s it! I couldn’t believe it. Her homework was to correct and/or complete the sheet. It was about 40 questions, mixed addition and subtraction. It took her almost 30 minutes.

I’m just not sure how to get her to speed up. It isn’t just math facts. She rarely brings home completed worksheets from school that they do together as a class. It’s not been a huge deal, as she actually knows the stuff. I’m not sure what slows her down. Sometimes, I notice her looking out the window or just staring blankly at her paper. She’s a bright girl, but I’m worried as she gets older and the work gets harder, this is going to become a bigger issue.

Comments (12)

I just wish I could get my 3rd grader to remember the math facts. I really don't know what to do with that kid.

I wish I had some ideas. My 18 year old has always been a very solid math student. She did pretty well on her AP (attachment parenting) calculus test last year as a high school senior. She started college this year, and tested out of a few math classes. Got a 28 on the math section of the ACT. (Not amazing, but certainly not bad) So no math "issues" in terms of understanding, and a solid math student. She was never able to pick up her speed though, and I did a lot of the things you mentioned as well as some other things. All through school, she continued to be one of the slower finishers in class in general, not just with math. Homework, even easy homework, always took her a long time. She occasionally didn't get to finish tests in various classes in high school even. Not once did she actually finish the math section on the ACT. In hindsight, I wish I had her evaluated, but I do partially think that's just how her mind works. She's WAY stronger than my 3rd and 4th, and there was nothing diagnostically wrong with either of them. She is very cautious and thinks things through in every aspect of life. I think partially that just carries over to school as well.

Do you see any other issues? Completing only 2 questions of 40 would concern me. (my dd (dear daughter) was never that slow) My niece was diagnosed with dysgraphia. She had some other indicators as well, but speed was the main complaint of her teachers and was causing her a lot of problems. Do you think she could have ADD? Or do you think she is just uninterested maybe? If you think it could be a problem, there is no harm in having an evaluation.

Thanks for your input. I just googled dysgraphia, I’d never heard of it. I don’t think that’s it, she seems to do ok with writing, which looks like writing issues is part of dysgraphia.

I’m not sure if it would be related, but she does have mild apraxia, which she’s received speech therapy for. They don’t think she’ll get ST this year, unless the teacher starts noticing issues. It’s a motor planning issue, so maybe that could be related.

ADD has crossed my mind recently. I never realized there was an “inattentive” type until recently. I was actually researching ADHD because I have concerns about my son and happened to read about the inattentive type. It might be something worth looking into. Maybe I’ll do some searching to see if apraxia could be linked to other things that could impact her speed or if it can be related to ADD.

Writing was another indication with my niece. And processing a whole page of stuff, I think. It all manifested in slowness, which is what the teachers noticed. Her 2nd grade teacher thought she was just lazy and unmotivated. She was rather mean and unforgiving about it.

I just had a full battery done on my 3rd grader. I suspected possibly some ADD (definitely no Hyperactivity), but they didn't find anything they could diagnose...

Anyway, it's interesting you mention apraxia. My oldest (and third and 4th) was in speech for articulation. Her evaluation didn't indicate apraxia, but honestly, I've always wondered if she had some mild apraxia that they just didn't catch. I wonder the same thing about my 3rd dd, even though they didn't find diagnose that for her either. Do you mind if I ask how the apraxia specifically affects your dd?

Writing was another indication with my niece. And processing a whole page o...

Last edited
09/11/2018

Writing was another indication with my niece. And processing a whole page of stuff, I think. It all manifested in slowness, which is what the teachers noticed. Her 2nd grade teacher thought she was just lazy and unmotivated. She was rather mean and unforgiving about it.

I just had a full battery done on my 3rd grader. I suspected possibly some ADD (definitely no Hyperactivity), but they didn't find anything they could diagnose...

Anyway, it's interesting you mention apraxia. My oldest (and third and 4th) was in speech for articulation. Her evaluation didn't indicate apraxia, but honestly, I've always wondered if she had some mild apraxia that they just didn't catch. I wonder the same thing about my 3rd dd, even though they didn't find diagnose that for her either. Do you mind if I ask how the apraxia specifically affects your dd?

The whole apraxia thing is a long story. When she was 3, she started preschool where they do speech screenings and they recommended she have a full evaluation. At that point, they said it was articulation, but it wasn’t severe enough for her to qualify for services. Her articulation score was very low (around what it would be for a 2 year old), but on the other areas of the evaluation, she scored high, like receptive/expressive language and her vocabulary. They said she was bright and the fact that she was a girl made it very likely she’d catch up on her own, especially being in preschool. The SLP gave us some tips and tricks to help her.

At the start of the 4 year old preschool program, we had her evaluated again. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have waited a whole year. She scored almost exactly the same on the articulation portion, so at 4 years old, she had almost a 2 year delay, so she qualified for speech. We had her see an ENT to rule out any health issues. She has large tonsils and seasonal allergies. Once she started ST, they mentioned her prosody, as well as the articulation, a lot, she also has a “nasal-y” voice. Her articulation quickly improved, but the prosody did not. That’s when the SLP mentioned that it was probably a motor speech delay. Once she started kindergarten, she switched to the schools SLP, but didn’t qualify for an IEP, she was in a speech improvement program. Toward the end of kindergarten the SLP finally threw out her thoughts that she had apraxia, but that it was mild.

Today, prosody is one of the biggest issues. Her speech doesn’t flow very well and she still puts emphasis on the wrong syllables sometimes. I’ve determined that she’ll be mistaken for being a New Englander/Bostonian. Her Rs are very soft. She also can’t say hospital to save her life. She says “hostibal” every time. She tries so hard, so she talks slowly because she really has to try to get the words out right. She’s very conscious of how she talks. I figured that was why she was slow speaking, but it’s carrying over to other things. Sorry for the book, I wasn’t sure if how it came to be might be helpful, since it seems to me that it probably isn’t uncommon to have apraxia mistaken for other things when it’s relatively mild.

Neither of mine have trouble with prosody. Both of mine also tested very well with receptive/expressive language, vocabulary, and such. They were both pretty low with articulation only. My oldest did get dismissed from speech in 4th grade, but even now sometimes people ask her where she's from because of the way she sometimes pronounces specifically her "r" sound. My 11 year old is STILL in speech because of her R sound. It's still pretty apparent. She actually does pretty well in school now, and is a smart girl. Her spelling is AWFUL though. (the one thing that was diagnosably bad when we tested her a few years ago) I find her writing immature and "planning" is difficult for her, though the planning is improving. And I just feel like it's hard for her to get what is in her head out into the world. I have a meeting with her speech teacher in two weeks actually. I may look into some other signals of mild apraxia, though it does seem to be different than what your dd (dear daughter) experiences. I just feel like there is something subtle going on with her and if I could figure out what to test for I could better help with it. Or maybe it's actually nothing...

I have a slow one, too. If my son could get 20-25 math facts done in 2-3 minutes, I'd be extolling him. He actually got slower as the year went on last year, and I think he could do timed multiplication facts about as quickly as he can do timed addition/subtraction at this point. Basically, the less engaged/interested/focused he is, the slower he becomes. Speed is not an issue when playing a game of PacMan, but it's a huge problem when completing repetitive schoolwork that he dislikes (such as copying spelling words). I'm still not convinced that ADHD is the "right" diagnosis, but he definitely has attention issues related to slow processing speed. We have a series of appointments with a developmental pediatrician this week, so perhaps I'll be more enlightened next week.

I also have relatively slow processing speed and was relatively slow at timed math facts but didn't show the attention issues that my son shows. I ended up in an accelerated magnet math program doing honors calculus as a high school freshman... so being slow with timed exercises doesn't necessarily mean that there is an attention issue or a comprehension issue.

I have a slow one, too. If my son could get 20-25 math facts done in 2-3 minu...

Posted
09/11/2018

I have a slow one, too. If my son could get 20-25 math facts done in 2-3 minutes, I'd be extolling him. He actually got slower as the year went on last year, and I think he could do timed multiplication facts about as quickly as he can do timed addition/subtraction at this point. Basically, the less engaged/interested/focused he is, the slower he becomes. Speed is not an issue when playing a game of PacMan, but it's a huge problem when completing repetitive schoolwork that he dislikes (such as copying spelling words). I'm still not convinced that ADHD is the "right" diagnosis, but he definitely has attention issues related to slow processing speed. We have a series of appointments with a developmental pediatrician this week, so perhaps I'll be more enlightened next week.

I also have relatively slow processing speed and was relatively slow at timed math facts but didn't show the attention issues that my son shows. I ended up in an accelerated magnet math program doing honors calculus as a high school freshman... so being slow with timed exercises doesn't necessarily mean that there is an attention issue or a comprehension issue.

Tonight she her math homework was a worksheet for multiplication, it was a beginner one, with grouping and pictures. She did the front and back of it in about 10 minutes. So, she can go a little faster, though she still isn’t one to rush through anything.

Try math apps and online timed math quizzes. I also keep math flash cards in the car for extra practice on the way to school in the morning. If there is time after reading at night we'll review the flash cards too.

What I do with my kids to help them with their math is I build in math into just about everything we do. They get 2 dollars each week for allowance and we often talk about math facts when we are out. They want a $15 toy, but they only have $8. How many more dollars do they need to be able to buy that toy. They get bonus high fives if they can quickly figure out how many weeks it will take to save up the extra $7.

It doesn't just have to be about money. For example if they ask me how many days it is until the weekend, I will tell them that today is the eleventh and Saturday is the 15th. I will then ask them how many days it is until the weekend. A lot of kids struggle with doing sheet after sheet of math equations, but if they use it a lot in everyday life, it starts to make sense in a more concrete and less abstract way.

Try math apps and online timed math quizzes. I also keep math flash cards in the car for extra practice on the way to school in the morning. If there is time after reading at night we'll review the flash cards too.

Thanks. We just got a letter home about an online math program the school is using, it has a code so we can use it at home. I think we’ll try it. She has an app she uses and does ok with it. She still isn’t as fast as she’s expected to be at school. We have her practice timed stuff, but knowing it’s timed actually makes her slower. Flash cards are similar, she realizes the expectation is speed and after a couple cards she starts fumbling around and taking forever to give an answer. I’ve tried explaining to her to just but think about the time and do the work.

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